"Poop transplants" are an effective way to treat people with one type of intestinal bacteria infection, a new study shows.

Researchers transplanted fecal matter from healthy people into the colons of people infected with the notoriously hard-to-treat Clostridium difficile bacteria, which causes severe, watery diarrhea. The researchers found that 46 out of 49 patients got better within a week of the treatment.

A humorous headline, a very un-funny condition. C Diff is a gut flora that out-competes healthy gut bacteria, creating fantastic diarrhea and cramping. This is rough stuff for little kids and older people, bringing on dehydration.

A treatment introducing healthy bacteria back into the system is odd, but thankfully effective.

To start with, a relatively new product sold in grocery stores is called “Kefir”, and it is like a flavored or unflavored yoghurt smoothie drink. Typically they have about 10 different live bacteria types, but can contain a selection of the following:

The study of intestinal flora is pretty new, but in ten years, there is a good chance it will become a very important part of medicine.
It is highly recommended that you drink a cup of Kefir in between doses of antibiotics, both to restore your flora, and to fend off drug resistant bacteria.

Odd. I just read an article in the New Yorker pointing out that we are filled with hundreds of different kinds of bacteria, and that some of them are needed for good health.

In another story, a guy with a chronic infection in one ear was given all sorts of treatments by his doctor, all kinds of antibiotics, etc., with no success.

Then he tried taking the ear wax from his good ear and sticking it into his bad ear. Sure enough, he cleared it right up, and amazed his doctor.

This is a complicated business, but no question in my mind that antibiotics have been overused, and that some of them cause more damage than help. Also, that germs are everywhere, but the important thing is to have the right ones. A complicated business, still not fully understood.

If you had an elderly parent come down with it, and you were caring for them, you would GLADLY try almost anything to give your parent (and yourself) a break. We won’t even talk about the wet, runny, brown stuff that winds up EVERYWHERE.

My mother went to the hospital 5 times in 3 months with it; on 3 different antibiotics at the same time.

Nasty, nasty stuff. Not something to screw around with.

20
posted on 10/20/2012 7:00:08 PM PDT
by moovova
(I work well with others, as long as they leave me alone.)

There are already many probiotic sources on the shelves. They should be able to at least come up will some type of pill.

Kinda like the fact that we don't use "Variolation" any more.

In Asia, practitioners developed the technique of variolationthe deliberate infection with smallpox. Dried smallpox scabs were blown into the nose of an individual who then contracted a mild form of the disease. Upon recovery, the individual was immune to smallpox. Between 1% to 2% of those variolated died as compared to 30% who died when they contracted the disease naturally.

By 1700, variolation had spread to Africa, India and the Ottoman Empire.

22
posted on 10/20/2012 7:03:17 PM PDT
by cripplecreek
(What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)

>>There are already many probiotic sources on the shelves. They should be able to at least come up will some type of pill. > >Kinda like the fact that we don't use "Variolation" any more.

There's a big difference though; if you were to eliminate all the microscopic life-forms in your body, and be fed sterile (but nutrient-rich) foods [in laboratory conditions] you would die from malnutrition. Microscopic life is an essential part of your digestive system, and in some ways your intestines are like a compost pile ~ needing microbiotics to process the organic substances there.

Therefore, it makes sense that one way to correct a deficient digestive tract (and some serious infections) would to be to introduce enough antibiotics to kill off virtually the whole microbiotic population and then repopulate the digestive tract with known-good microbiotics. (Similar to the wiping and reinstalling of an OS to be rid of a virus.)

35
posted on 10/20/2012 8:11:53 PM PDT
by OneWingedShark
(Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)

It’s not as easy as eating a source of the necessary bugs, as the stomach will kill them with acid before they get to the gut.

There’s one thing that will kill C. Difficile and it’s oral vancomycin. But it is not used except in extremis because it is also the last chance antibiotic for a number of bacteria that are on the verge of developing vancomycin resistance. And after killing the C. Difficile now what? You still have the problem of putting the good bacteria back.

37
posted on 10/20/2012 8:15:48 PM PDT
by HiTech RedNeck
(cat dog, cat dog, alone in the world is a little cat dog)

i would dare say a weeks’ worth of decent probiotic supplementation would do just as well. it’s just trying to get good bacteria to regain a foothold and balance over the bad bacteria that’s currently overrunnng the bowels.

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